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Anonymous User wrote:I'm a recent grad who's currently clerking. I'm trying to update my LinkedIn profile to assist in the inevitable hunt for a post-clerkship job that's quickly approaching. Would it be a dick move to put that I graduated 2nd in my class and also add AmJur awards? Those are on my resume of course, and I try to treat LinkedIn like a resume. But several connections are former classmates. I didn't talk about my rank and awards while in school, so I'm not sure whether it would be inappropriate now. The ultimate goal is to find a long-term job. Thanks in advance for the advice!

Yeah, there's nothing wrong with putting that on LinkedIn.

Just be sure that you've turned off "Send updates to contacts" before you add stuff like that.

I was offered a one-year clerkship in the SDNY but it won't start until 2018. I have to do something for two years until then. Do email I email big-law employers that I was most recently rejected from (before I got the clerkship offer) and ask them if this new information would make any difference?

Also going forward to I mention this in my interviews? Is it likely Big Law Employers would hire someone who had a clerkship in two years?

This probably won't be of much use to those currently stressing out, but I remember that reading success stories made me feel better when I was a regular visitor to this thread, so I wanted to drop by and share my story:

I graduated from a good-but-not-great (T50) school in 2014. I had a few nibbles from small firms and alternative employers (Dodd-Frank compliance jobs, a legal editor position at Bloomberg BNA, etc.). Nothing panned out, and I was getting increasingly desperate. I have no family money to fall back on, live in an expensive city, and will soon be totally out of money. Because I'm an absolute crazy person, I signed up with one of those doc review attorney placement services even before I took final exams 3L. They were great, and immediately found me a couple miscellaneous projects that I worked on while I was studying for the bar (note: if you can avoid working during bar prep at all, I would do so. I worked two separate legal odd jobs while I was studying from the bar, which resulted in me completing exactly 11% of my bar review program and, eventually, juuuuust barely passing the bar.). I was blasting out resumes every day, to every vacancy that was even mildly related to the law.

As I sat for the bar, life was looking pretty bleak: I was a total basket case, my relationships were suffering for it, and there appeared to be no long term future for me in the law. My google history from that time was basically different variations of "what countries can I move to to avoid paying GradPlus loans?"

Out of nowhere, maybe two days after I took the bar, I got a hit on a job I didn't even remember applying to. It was a federal government job with a prestige executive agency in the exact specialization that I had studied extensively and had totally written off getting a job in (international trade if you're wondering). I went in, interviewed, and shockingly - amazingly - got the job (even though I wouldn't get bar results for a month and a half, I was allowed to start immediately). I would learn later that I beat out 900 other applicants, all of which I imagine were more qualified (the position was advertised as GS11-14, so many of the other applicants were senior associates at BigLaw and the like). To this day, I have no idea why I was hired.

The job turned out great - I work on issues with a national profile, am doing really well, getting all kinds of responsibility. Honors Attorneys (a program that wouldn't touch me with a ten foot pole) rotate through, and my office treats them like interns, all the while handing me more and more important work. I'm thinking about proposing to my girlfriend soon, and getting married would require me making more than FedGov money, so I applied to a couple targeted vacancies just to see what would happen, and so far 2 of the 3 BigLaw firms I applied to have brought me in to interview (one of which I expect will offer me any day now).

Anyways, I'm sorry if this came off as me bragging or being douchey - that wasn't the intent. I just wanted to leave this here to say that a little over a year ago I was on this thread every day and really thought that law school destroyed my life, and today I am very happy and on my way to what will (hopefully) be a successful legal career. And that it all happened really fast, so don't lose hope or something like that?

ballouttacontrol wrote:Where do you find entry level govt jobs to apply to? Everything I see seems to want a lot of experience

USAjobs for federal government. Search "attorney" and filter to show only those with pay grade GS-11 (GS-11 is the entry-level pay grade for attorneys, and indicates they'll hire people for entry level jobs). The USA jobs almost always require bar passage, but if you took the bar in July, and are applying in July or August, but haven't received results, then they'll likely still interview you since bar passage is (hopefully!) arriving shortly.

Just had another interview today at a great firm. Fuck, I hope this works out. They said they were looking for a more experienced attorney, but I made sure to convey my experience, exposure, and desire to work at the firm. Hopefully, I can at least snag a call back out of this. Who knows.

Ron_Mexico wrote:The job turned out great - I work on issues with a national profile, am doing really well, getting all kinds of responsibility. Honors Attorneys (a program that wouldn't touch me with a ten foot pole) rotate through, and my office treats them like interns, all the while handing me more and more important work. I'm thinking about proposing to my girlfriend soon, and getting married would require me making more than FedGov money, so I applied to a couple targeted vacancies just to see what would happen, and so far 2 of the 3 BigLaw firms I applied to have brought me in to interview (one of which I expect will offer me any day now).

I feel the need to chime in and specify that this treatment varies by agency and whether you've passed the bar or not. I have certainly always been treated as a full attorney even before I passed the bar. I've been handling my own cases since and doing other work with the same level of supervision that other senior attorneys get in the office.

Ron_Mexico wrote:This probably won't be of much use to those currently stressing out, but I remember that reading success stories made me feel better when I was a regular visitor to this thread, so I wanted to drop by and share my story:

I graduated from a good-but-not-great (T50) school in 2014. I had a few nibbles from small firms and alternative employers (Dodd-Frank compliance jobs, a legal editor position at Bloomberg BNA, etc.). Nothing panned out, and I was getting increasingly desperate. I have no family money to fall back on, live in an expensive city, and will soon be totally out of money. Because I'm an absolute crazy person, I signed up with one of those doc review attorney placement services even before I took final exams 3L. They were great, and immediately found me a couple miscellaneous projects that I worked on while I was studying for the bar (note: if you can avoid working during bar prep at all, I would do so. I worked two separate legal odd jobs while I was studying from the bar, which resulted in me completing exactly 11% of my bar review program and, eventually, juuuuust barely passing the bar.). I was blasting out resumes every day, to every vacancy that was even mildly related to the law.

As I sat for the bar, life was looking pretty bleak: I was a total basket case, my relationships were suffering for it, and there appeared to be no long term future for me in the law. My google history from that time was basically different variations of "what countries can I move to to avoid paying GradPlus loans?"

Out of nowhere, maybe two days after I took the bar, I got a hit on a job I didn't even remember applying to. It was a federal government job with a prestige executive agency in the exact specialization that I had studied extensively and had totally written off getting a job in (international trade if you're wondering). I went in, interviewed, and shockingly - amazingly - got the job (even though I wouldn't get bar results for a month and a half, I was allowed to start immediately). I would learn later that I beat out 900 other applicants, all of which I imagine were more qualified (the position was advertised as GS11-14, so many of the other applicants were senior associates at BigLaw and the like). To this day, I have no idea why I was hired.

The job turned out great - I work on issues with a national profile, am doing really well, getting all kinds of responsibility. Honors Attorneys (a program that wouldn't touch me with a ten foot pole) rotate through, and my office treats them like interns, all the while handing me more and more important work. I'm thinking about proposing to my girlfriend soon, and getting married would require me making more than FedGov money, so I applied to a couple targeted vacancies just to see what would happen, and so far 2 of the 3 BigLaw firms I applied to have brought me in to interview (one of which I expect will offer me any day now).

Anyways, I'm sorry if this came off as me bragging or being douchey - that wasn't the intent. I just wanted to leave this here to say that a little over a year ago I was on this thread every day and really thought that law school destroyed my life, and today I am very happy and on my way to what will (hopefully) be a successful legal career. And that it all happened really fast, so don't lose hope or something like that?

Sounds like a job I recently applied for (like, the same exact job). I applied there about a month ago. Radio silence. I knew it was out of my league.